Mehbooba Movie Review
Puri Jagannadh has launched the likes of Ram Charan (Chirutha), Puneeth Rajkumar (Appu) and Ishan (Rogue). He is known for image make-over of the stars. The auteur of films like Badri, Idiot, Pokiri has also introduced several female actors. All these naturally give rise to the expectations on his son Akash’s launch pad – Mehbooba. In addition to this, the film’s promising trailer too keeps the hopes alive.
However, his recent track record makes one skeptical about his comeback. Unfortunately, Puri continues it with Mehbooba too. It is not a perfect launch for his son Akash. Read on to know what didn’t work and where Puri got it wrong.
Story :
Roshan (Akash) is born in India. Since childhood, he remembers traces of his past. This worries his working parents. Afreen (Neha Shetty) is born in Pakistan. She too faces similar problem. She recalls her previous life where she is killed. Both Roshan and Afreen grew up. While Roshan wants to become soldier and wishes to serve Indian Army, Afreen convinces her parents to continue her higher studies in India.
What is their past? When do they realize they are Kabir and Mehbooba? Did they reunite?
Technicalities:
Puri Jagannadh is known for writing unique characterization for his protagonists with a care-free attitude. But the protagonist of Mehbooba, Roshan, a responsible youth who works part-time to pay off his college fees. And he cares for society. Puri takes the opportunity and tries to get preachy.
Though there is scope for imbibing commercial elements into this serious story, Puri chose otherwise. He is honest to the story he has chosen for his son’s launch. But he couldn’t run the film in a gripping manner. Filled with predictable scenes, the film forces viewers to look towards the nearest exit in cinema.
It’s not all bad. The war zone is nicely erected and war scenes are well conceived. Technically, the film has nothing to found fault with. Initially, the camera movement is not very comfortable but it falls in place as the story begins. Sandeep’s music is average. Title song and theme music is good. Rest doesn’t suit the album of young couple. Editing is alright.
Performances:
Akash is alright but he still has to work upon his acting skills. He is still rigid and needs a lot of maturity to pull off the strong roles such as Roshan.
Neha is fine. She has little to offer. Shayaji Shinde shines as a frustrated father who often complains, grumbles over his son’s acts. Murali Sharma as girl’s father is impressive. All other characters are okay. There are only a few notable faces in the film.
Thumbs Up:
Cinematography
Technical Aspects
Thumbs Down:
Lackluster scenes
Lack of emotion in love story
Weak climax
Analysis:
Puri has been suffering from this problem from a while. His movies are good until he unravels the story. Once the story is revealed, he suffers to sustain the momentum. Even in Mehbooba, he faces the same and repeats the same-old mistakes. He has chosen a rather heavy story for the launch of his son as the hero. The film levies too much burden on Akash that he fails to pull it off. Also, none of the scenes make enough impact. Be it India-Pakistan cricket match scenes or the Pakistan Zindabad scenes have failed to crack any fireworks as expected.
The good thing is that Puri has stayed away from his usual comedy or item number in this serious love story set against the Indo-Pak backdrop. There is no Ali or a Mumaith Khan. It is a blessing in disguise. But, Puri struggled with the narration. He failed to evolve the substance in this wafer-thin plot of reincarnation of love couple.
First half moves at slow pace, but it is decent. The pre-interval scenes rises the tempo and curiosity. However, post interval, the second half fails to live up to the curiosity it generated during the interval. Climax is utterly boring and predictable.
Verdict: Poor(i) Show!
